by Rick Simonds » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:05 pm
A week from Saturday I’ll enter my once-a-year race. It’s a charity event for the American Cancer Society and my company partially sponsors it, so I feel some obligation to make an appearance, but I always enjoy it, too. I always enter the cruising class, and around here it is a GENUINE cruising class; no racers ever sandbag just to get a trophy. The locals call it the “blender fleet” (- “who can make the best Pina Colada during the race?”) We have good food and drinks aboard as well, the cook is as important than the tactician.
Despite that I usually do reasonably well against the other true cruising boats, always somewhere in the upper third. One year they set a very long windward/leeward course in light air and I got whomped. I stomped everybody one year on what turned out to be a bunch of beam reaching. I'm in a Hoyt 32 Cat/Sloop and, from what I've seen, perhaps I'm somewhat closer-winded than the ketches. Some Freedoms have done quite well in more serious distance racing but I think you’re generally right about round-the-buoys racing: Short of a fluke we’ll never beat the very close winded boats.
Racing is okay, it’s a nice way to spend a day and we’ll sail our best, so long as we can follow our one absolute rule:
“No Yelling.”
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Rick
Tallahassee